There’s no denying that it takes a special kind of person to become an entrepreneur. It takes dogged determination, a passion that borders on obsession and a certain degree of hard headedness. After all, the path of the entrepreneur is strewn with hurdles and setbacks. If every entrepreneur gave up hope every time a funding or loan application was rejected, every time an employee quit or every time a supplier didn’t make good on their commitment, there’d be no small businesses left in the world and the economy would be the worse for it.

Nonetheless, despite the admirability of the entrepreneurial mindset it can be both the making of a fledgling business… Or it can just as easily be its undoing. While it may be tempting to think that you can take on the whole world alone, no less a personage than Richard Branson has this to say on the subject…

“Understandably there’s a lot of ego, nervous energy and parental pride involved, especially with one- or two-person start-ups…Going it alone is an admirable, but foolhardy and highly flawed approach to taking on the world.”

Master your pride

Pride can be a great thing. Pride in your business and its practices can help you keep to your principles when your competitors are selling theirs short for a quick buck. Pride can keep you motivated when all around you shrug their shoulders, but it can also be the enemy of running an efficient and effective business. Your pride can deafen your ears to good advice and cause you to make counterproductive business decisions out of sheer pigheadedness. Mastering your pride and embracing advice and criticism could be the key to success in your business.

Find a mentor

While there’s certainly nobody who knows your business like you do, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t heed the advice of those who know business in general better than you do. This may mean seeking out the services of a business consultant like Lean Sigma Consultants or taking on a mentor. Any business person worth their salt will tell you that the role of the mentor in business is a necessary and important one. Seeking a mentor can be a humbling experience for an entrepreneur and this may cause them to be extra-discerning in whose advice they seek out.

LinkedIn is a great advice for seeking out a mentor. Mentoring is a flexible discipline. It can be a frank and informal exchange of ideas online or it can mean integrating the mentor in the fold of the business and making them essentially a silent partner.

There’s a lot of advice out there for entrepreneurs, whether they’re just starting out or well on the way in their business journey. A mentor or consultant will lend you the perspective you need to weed out the good advice from the bad and help you to forge your own business style.

Seeking out help and advice needn’t mean compromising your business nor selling out your ideas, but it may well become the difference between success and failure for your enterprise. However you approach this, it’s important to remember that you can’t take on the world alone.